Bundaberg Para Shooter Chris Pitt prepared for his favoured P3 Mixed 25m Pistol event when he finished 25th in the P1 Men’s 10m Air Pistol at the Tokyo Paralympic Games today.
Pitt was beaten in a bronze medal shoot-off in the P3 Mixed 25m Pistol at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games and he will contest the Tokyo Paralympic Games event on Thursday.
Pitt always considered today’s P1 Men’s 10m Air Pistol a “warm-up” event ahead of the P3 Mixed 25m Pistol and was unable to peel off consistent high scores to seriously challenge for a finals position.
Although he missed a place in the final, Pitt can consider himself a winner having made it to the line to shoot in the event after undergoing major surgery to remove cancer from his tongue last October.
He endured 14 hours of surgery, including a skin graft to replace a piece of his tongue, followed by months of radiation therapy.
“I exercised every day. The motivation of Tokyo helped me get through,” said Pitt.
Pitt will have P3 Mixed 25m Pistol Pre-Event Training tomorrow ahead of Thursday’s P3 Mixed 25m Pistol event.
Tomorrow, Australia will enter two athletes when Perth’s Anton Zappelli and Brisbane’s Natalie Smith contest the R3 Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone event.
Zappelli enters the event ranked number three in the world.
Zappelli won the silver medal in the event behind Great Britain’s Matt Skelhon at the WSPS Championship held at Cecil Park in Sydney in 2019.
